Minnesota players in the final 50: 3 (Christian Pham and Brandon Myers)

Other things of note –

I am now over a million dollars in live tournament cashes though I have primarily been an online and cash game player. I cracked the million dollar mark in career profits in cash games about four years ago and was quite pleased with myself. This milestone also makes me happy.

My girlfriend Jordan was the best poker valet ever. Throughout the main event run she brought me everything I needed, made sure I got good meals and as much sleep as possible and was super supportive. I’m lucky to have her around and living just a few blocks from the Rio.

I’m rooting like hell for John Hesp. I played with him quite a bit and he is charming and funny and would make a great ambassador for the game if he ships this thing.

One of the guys I played with quite a bit on day 5, Paul Senat, killed a man with an AK47 in a club in April. It appears the death was accidental, but whatever the club is, I don’t want to be hanging around if there are loaded Kalishnakovs on a shelf in the back room. He was reasonably pleasant to play with and his girlfriend was on the rail bringing him Starbucks.

Patch deals are back! Just a few years ago, poker endorsement deals were basically dead. This year people were getting $2,000 to wear an 888 patch on day 6. We have 50 people left and they are paying $2k a day? That is amazing! Kudos to 888 for spreading some cash around and bringing patch deals back to the series.

I am about to launch a poker tour. If you have a venue near you that would benefit from an inexpensive tour that can bring in people, get in touch with me I will do everything I can to book it. This is not a Minnesota or Midwest tour, and in fact we don’t expect to be running a lot of events in the already saturated Minnesota market, but we are happy to go anywhere, including overseas. More news about this soon.

The tremendous show of support from friends and family really took the sting out of the loss and made the run a ton more fun. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. When you do well, and thousands of people are genuinely happy for you, it really makes you feel like you are living right. I’m a very lucky, and very happy, man.

]]>http://foxpoker.com/general/wsop-by-the-numbers-2/feed0A Case of Mistaken Identityhttp://foxpoker.com/general/a-case-of-mistaken-identity
http://foxpoker.com/general/a-case-of-mistaken-identity#respondTue, 18 Oct 2016 03:14:19 +0000http://foxpoker.com/?p=1295Over the last year or two I have received some angry messages on twitter about what a miserable reporter I turned out to be. I quickly surmised that these were meant for Chris Wallace the reporter for Fox News, son of Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes fame. Then I started trolling…

You see, I was given a wonderful gift by the fates. Because my profile did not in any way indicate that I was the Fox News reporter, I was only contacted by the most clueless twitter users. Anyone with half a brain, or any internet savvy, would realize that I wasn’t him from my twitter profile, description, or recent tweet. So I got the most gullible, angry, lost twitter users and almost all of them were ultra-conservative.

Since the start of campaign season these random tweets have increased significantly. In the last two weeks they have increased at least ten fold because the other Chris Wallace (no not Biggie) will be moderating the final presidential debate. This was an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up. Allow me take you on a guided tour of some of my favorite moments so far.

Some tweets made me feel really good about myself and my future as a debate moderator.

Others weren’t so sure that I would be a good moderator, but I took it in stride, tried to put a positive spin on it, and even offered up a compliment at the end hoping to win over a viewer.

Many people contacted me to offer suggestions to help improve the debates. This inspired me to come up with my own unique ideas.

I tried to increase the realism of the whole thing by claiming that I had spoken with the candidates about their ideas.

I imagine some people were shocked at how biased a news reporter could be.

Others were probably surprised to find that I had already locked in my questions and wasn’t interested in hearing new ideas.

Others learned that I will go to great lengths to get to the bottom of things.

I was able to reassure some potential voters that I had info straight from the source.

I was also able to keep my twitter followers up to date on potential questions well ahead of the debate. I’m guessing Hillary goes with “Water Bong” while Trump’s answer is closer to “My butler rolls me a joint whenever I need one. They are the best joints. really.”

Mid-week there were so many tweets coming at me that I couldn’t reply to all of them. These were pretty typical.

I really like when people jump right on the fun wagon and join the party. This guy’s response was excellent.

When the tweets were ridiculous enough I resorted to fighting nonsense with nonsense.

Some of my followers were surprised to learn that I have a little bit of Hannibal Lecter in me.

An impartial moderator really shouldn’t disrespect the candidates, but sometimes it’s tough to control myself.

I thought I had a shot with this woman for a second there, but maybe I came on too strong…

And because I used #bondage in the tweet above, I was immediately added to a list of “fellow bondage lovers”. Put that on 60 minutes! Fox News Reporter Professes Love for Bondage on Twitter!

I did have some thoughts about making the debates more entertaining.

A good reporter never reveals his sources. Maybe I shouldn’t have busted Hannity on this one. He does always have the good shit around the office though. If you need a muscle relaxer, some Molly, or a bag of bathtub meth, whatever it is he can hook you up.

Here I discuss the importance of poll numbers with one of my followers.

A few people got out of hand with the #hashtags.

On of the highlights of this week on twitter was meeting a relative of one of my favorite celebrities.

I really hope my namesake at Fox News sees this idea and adopts it.

So far the polls show that I’m doing a great job! Of course, I did retweet this to my followers, so the numbers might be slanted, but it’s a poll and I’m viewed very favorably. Go me!

There will be at least one more post with a few older tweets and whatever mess I can make in the coming days before the election. Thanks for reading!

]]>http://foxpoker.com/general/a-case-of-mistaken-identity/feed0A Great Week for Tournament Pokerhttp://foxpoker.com/general/a-great-week-for-tournament-poker
http://foxpoker.com/general/a-great-week-for-tournament-poker#respondSat, 20 Aug 2016 21:55:00 +0000http://foxpoker.com/?p=1291There are two great tournaments happening this week in our area. If you live in the South West twin cities, the iNinja Club ring event features a $260 buy-in with a $100,000 guarantee. With six starting days and a great structure, this event should be huge. If you live in the northeast metro or in Wisconsin, the PPC Poker Tour is in town at the Turtle Lake St. Croix Casino and I am the featured pro for this tour stop. That means I will be there every day from the kickoff event Wednesday night through the main event and playing cash games whenever I’m not in a tournament.

I will have to skip the Senior’s event for a few more years, but the green chip bounty at Turtle Lake should be a ton of fun and the main event features a $320+30 buy-in which is remarkably low rake for a tournament of this size. The cash games should be great all week with $2/5 no-limit and PLO expected to run all weekend. I’m really looking forward to this event and I think it is a tremendous value.

]]>http://foxpoker.com/general/a-great-week-for-tournament-poker/feed0Buyback Fever!http://foxpoker.com/poker-advice/buyback-fever
http://foxpoker.com/poker-advice/buyback-fever#respondFri, 22 Jul 2016 07:11:33 +0000http://foxpoker.com/?p=1282Now that the World Series of Poker is over (thank God) for the year, it’s time to head back to Minnesota and get away from the brutal desert heat of Las Vegas. We may stop for a few days in Black Hawk Colorado to play some cash games, but the real destination is the iNinja Ring Event at the Horseshoe in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

The event features a $100,000 guarantee for a $285 buy-in. The last time we were in Council Bluffs we set a state record and with six starting flights we should crush this guarantee for a huge prize pool. My favorite feature of this event, other than the gold ring for the winner, is the $1,000 stack buy back. Let’s talk about how it works.

You can play as many flights as you like. I will probably play at least four. If you get through to day two more than once, you get $1,000 for each time you make it to day two after the first time. Your largest stack will go forward to day two, so if you have a short stack it is incredibly profitable to play again. If you bag a big stack your first time through, you can play future flights as if they are cash satellites. This makes it easier to get a short stack through because your opponents are all trying to build a pile of chips while you are just grinding to get through the day and make $1,000.

The last time we went to Council Bluffs, team pro Aaron Johnson managed to bag all four flights and make $3,000 in buybacks for his efforts. Aaron even wrote an article on playing these events. With the right strategy these events can be very profitable. Read Aaron’s article HERE.

]]>http://foxpoker.com/poker-advice/buyback-fever/feed0I’m Not Mad…http://foxpoker.com/general/im-not-mad
http://foxpoker.com/general/im-not-mad#respondMon, 18 Jul 2016 05:05:12 +0000http://foxpoker.com/?p=1280Poker, you have been a cruel mistress this last year or so. I’m not mad at you, I understand that you have to do what you have to do. I’m just disappointed. Like all of your lovers, you led me on. And you continue to do so. I remember what you told me in 2014…

“You are a world champion Chris. And I love you. Look at that shiny gold bracelet. You have proven yourself. You can do this. You’re going to be rich and famous. Everyone loves you and they will love you even more. You have nothing to worry about.”

As I think we both know now, this was bullshit. Sure, I’ve made money over my career. But you always convince me that it will be more consistent. That the next victory is right around the corner. Every time you hand a victory to some idiot that I know can’t play at all, I’m convinced that I must have another one coming any day now. Every time a friend wins and I celebrate their victory, I think that I must be next.

And then you forsake me again. This time for an entire summer. I played my ass off this year and you were nowhere to be found. You bailed on me again. All your promises were just so much pillow talk. You miserable, lying, cheating, tramp. I had people depending on me.

This wasn’t even my money. I sold a ton of action this year. And now I feel like I let those people down. Sure, I did my best. And I know, variance is huge in tournament poker. But that doesn’t make me feel any better. You better straighten out your act poker, or we are done. I’m not kidding this time.

Please call me. I miss you. I miss winning. We were so good together.

For Investors

Total Cashes for the Investment Package – $7,352.

I skipped the Wynn Main Event, so I have $1,600 left. I’ll be playing every flight of the $100k iNinja event in Council Bluffs, Iowa at the end of the month which will cover the rest of the package money. It’s a much better investment anyway with a much softer field and much better shot at making us a profit. Checks will be sent out in a few weeks when I get back to Minnesota.

I hate losing other people’s ,money so much more than losing my own that I’m considering a few different approaches to future tournament play. I may find a full time backer or sell investment packages for an entire year like an investment fund. This would cut down variance drastically. It would certainly still be possible to lose money, but there would be a much more consistent return and much lower chance of a total loss. I will let you all know what I decide.

]]>http://foxpoker.com/general/im-not-mad/feed0Final WSoP Investment Packagehttp://foxpoker.com/general/final-wsop-investment-package
http://foxpoker.com/general/final-wsop-investment-package#respondTue, 24 May 2016 00:50:34 +0000http://foxpoker.com/?p=1277I have finalized my WSoP Investment package and set up my schedule for the summer. Thank you to everyone who invested. I’m playing very well right now and hope to make you a giant pile of cash this year! Updates will be posted here on occasion and regularly on twitter @foxpokerfox. The final number was smaller than I expected because I removed the $50k Player’s Championship from the package. Each $528 invested is approximately 1% (1.01 percent to be exact).

Tournament

Date

Time

Buy-in

Colossus

6/2/2016

11:00 AM

$565

WSoP Dealer’s Choice

6/5/2016

3:00 PM

$1,500

WSoP HORSE

6/7/2016

11:00 AM

$1,500

WSoP Razz

6/9/2016

11:00 AM

$1,500

WSoP HORSE

6/12/2016

3:00 PM

$3,000

iNinja 250k (2 entries)

6/13/2016

4:00 PM

$800

WSoP HORSE

6/15/2016

3:00 PM

$10,000

Wynn NLHE

6/17/2016

7:30 PM

$1,100

WSoP NLHE

6/18/2016

11:00 AM

$1,500

Binion’s HORSE

6/20/2016

12:00 PM

$400

WSoP 90 minute blinds

6/20/2016

11:00 AM

$1,500

Wynn NLHE

6/21/2016

12:00 PM

$400

Wynn NLHE

6/22/2016

12:00 PM

$400

WSoP Monster Stack

6/24/2016

11:00 AM

$1,500

Planet Hollywood Turbo

6/25/2016

3:00 PM

$350

Planet Hollywood Goliath

6/27/2016

4:00 PM

$350

Planet Hollywood Goliath

6/28/2016

5:00 PM

$350

WSoP Crazy 8s

7/1/2016

3:00 PM

$888

WSoP Turbo

7/4/2016

11:00 AM

$1,000

Wynn 250k

7/8/2016

12:00 PM

$600

WSoP Main Event

7/10/2016

11:00 AM

$10,000

WSoP Little Drop

7/14/2016

3:00 PM

$1,111

Wynn Main Event

7/17/2016

12:00 PM

$1,600

]]>http://foxpoker.com/general/final-wsop-investment-package/feed0Ladies Intro to Poker at Canterbury Parkhttp://foxpoker.com/poker-advice/ladies
http://foxpoker.com/poker-advice/ladies#respondSun, 15 May 2016 00:07:03 +0000http://foxpoker.com/?p=1266I’ll be doing a presentation for a group of ladies this weekend at Canterbury Park. In addition to the hand out everyone will receive, I want to make this list available to them online permanently right here.

The Quick and Dirty Basics

Beating a home game, small buy-in tournament, or even the lowest level cash games in a casino, doesn’t require a complicated skill set or in-depth thought process. While those things can increase your win rate, the vast majority of your profit will come from playing solid poker while your opponents make mistakes. If you make less mistakes, you will win the money more often.

The following basic tips will help you avoid making big mistakes.

Raise or Fold – In many cases, especially before the flop, if your hand is not good enough to raise, you should fold. Calling should be your last option and used only when it obviously correct. For most new players, calling and checking, the passive plays, are the default. Passive plays should be the last option rather than the first.

Tight is Right – There are times to play a lot of hands and be loose and aggressive. They are not usually in very soft games and they are never when you are new to the game. Being patient and playing tight is the best default approach until you know when, why, and how to play more hands.

Be a Believer -When someone makes a play that indicates they have a big hand, your default should be to believe them. You can start making what we call “hero calls” when you are sure that you are right, have the knowledge to accurately assess their range of hands, and can accurately explain how often you will win the hand based on their range.

Position, Position, Position – I have worked with hundreds of students over the years. None of them have been positional enough. Not one. You should be playing at least five times as many hands on the button as you would play under the gun. Play Ace-Five suited under the gun only if you hate money.

Don’t Slow Play – If you have a monster, bet it like you would any hand. If they fold you weren’t going to make much anyway, but if you let them get away from their hand cheaply when you could have won a big pot by betting every chance you got, you have cost yourself a lot of money.

Don’t Bluff Constantly – The greatest players are very aggressive, but so are the worst players. Bluff when you have a good reason. Many soft games can be beaten without bluffing at all and sometimes you just can’t win a hand and have to let it go without bluffing off a stack of chips in a bad spot.

Don’t Get Married (to a hand) – Your hand is only strong in relation to what you think your opponent has. If you have two black aces, the flop is 567 with three diamonds, and you are facing a bet and a raise, just throw them away and move on to the next hand.

]]>http://foxpoker.com/poker-advice/ladies/feed0Vegas Summer Schedulinghttp://foxpoker.com/general/vegas-summer-scheduling
http://foxpoker.com/general/vegas-summer-scheduling#respondWed, 11 May 2016 19:18:24 +0000http://foxpoker.com/?p=1270The great summer poker carnival starts in three weeks and it’s time to make plans. If you haven’t booked a trip yet, check hotel and flight rates first because they will vary widely for the next two months. Once you find reasonable flight and room rates, you can use the links below to create a tournament schedule.

The Aria will be having a summer series along with the High Roller and WPT500 events, but I have not been able to find a link to the schedule, though it is in the spreadsheet above. If you find a link to the Aria schedule for the whole series please send it and I’ll update this post.

]]>http://foxpoker.com/general/vegas-summer-scheduling/feed0It’s Not About Pridehttp://foxpoker.com/general/its-not-about-pride
http://foxpoker.com/general/its-not-about-pride#respondSun, 17 Apr 2016 00:06:58 +0000http://foxpoker.com/?p=1261I played a $125 tournament last night at The Orleans. My girlfriend lives a few blocks away so I’ve been grinding the cash games there some nights and she was playing the tournament so I jumped in. I probably shouldn’t have played since Friday nights are typically my most profitable cash game nights, but it sounded like fun.

The Friday night tournament at The Orleans always draws a huge field, and most of them are recreational players without a lot of knowledge about the game. The field was 191 last night, with first place approaching $4,700.

My starting table was very soft, with lots of players calling raises but unwilling to risk their tournament life. Half an hour after I sat down, I limped under the gun, something I would rarely do in a bigger buy-in tournament with stronger players, at the 150/300 level with a 10k stack. The player to my immediate left raised to 800 and five players behind him called.

The raise to less than 3x after a limper usually doesn’t indicate a ton of strength. Recreational players will usually make a play like this to limit the field with a medium strength hand when they don’t know how to handle a six way flop with something like AJ or KQ or 99. The players calling behind him are not likely to have a big hand either since they know the flop will be multi-way if they don’t reraise.

With over 4,000 in the pot, a lot of fold equity with a 10k stack, and a hand that plays fairly well all-in, it looked like a good spot to steal by going all-in. And it almost worked. The button had called the 800 with AQo for some strange reason, and he called my all-in. I made a pair and he didn’t, and I stacked 25,000 chips while he was left with just a few thousand.

We can debate my play. Maybe a call was safer and smarter. For 500 chips I had a chance to win a big pot and the downside was very small. But there is no doubt that my play was well thought out and very likely to work by either winning without a showdown or getting the pot heads up with a chance to win and an extra 4,000 in the middle.

My opponent did not agree. He made multiple comments about how I was obviously a gambler and noted that my play was terrible and made no sense. I agreed, told him that I play for fun and that it’s all a gamble anyway. His reply?

“For guys like you it is.”

Ah, I remember those days. When I was first learning a little poker strategy and wanted to show off my knowledge and let everyone know that I was serious about poker. I was never as rude to a bad player as he was to me, but I certainly had that attitude those first few months. And I’m sure that I saw plays that I didn’t understand. I hope I didn’t comment on them.

When I posted this exchange on twitter, multiple followers suggested I pull out my bracelet to shut him up. But why would I do that? I never mentioned a word about being a poker pro. Throughout the tournament I ran into two more players who told me how terrible I was and I stuck with my story. I play poker for fun and play my cards however I want. It’s all a gamble anyway right?

Because of the bracelet, I don’t need to tell anyone anything about how good I am. I know how good I am. I have a bracelet and more importantly I have 13 years of playing poker for a living. I don’t need to tell any of my opponents how good I am. Let them think I’m a fish. It’s refreshing. I don’t get much of that in Minnesota or in bigger buy-in events in Vegas. But in this little tournament at The Orleans, I got to be a clueless fish for a night.

No one knew I could play, I stole a ton of pots because of it, and it took two big beats to bust me just before the final table. It was fun. It was profitable. And not a single one of my opponents has any idea who they were playing with. And I’m going to keep it that way.

So. Do you want money or respect? Because one costs a bit of the other. I have enough respect for myself, I’ll take the money. If you already have enough money, go for the respect, it’s fun too. But be conscious of the reality that they are somewhat exclusive. Proving how well you play can cost you money.

]]>http://foxpoker.com/general/its-not-about-pride/feed02016 WSoP Packagehttp://foxpoker.com/general/2016-wsop-package
http://foxpoker.com/general/2016-wsop-package#respondWed, 16 Mar 2016 13:36:45 +0000http://foxpoker.com/?p=1258My 2016 WSoP Investment package is finally up for sale to the public. It is about 60% sold at the moment, but the big investors have already bought their chunks and I expect most of the pieces sold from here on out to be smaller. You can read about it on the investment page HERE and check out the list of events at the package page on Tasty Stakes.]]>http://foxpoker.com/general/2016-wsop-package/feed0